I followed its gaze to the clock over the sink. It was one-forty. I hoped Ivy didn’t walk in on this. An undead vamp might survive a demon attack, but a live one would stand as much of a chance as me.

I took a breath to tell it to go away because I didn’t call it, but a thought stopped me cold. It knew Nick’s last name. It had said it twice.

“It knows your last name,” I said, turning to Nick. “Why does it know your name?”

Nick’s mouth opened and his eyes slid to the demon. “Ah …”

“Why does it know your name?” I demanded, my hands on my hips. I was tired of being afraid, and Nick was a convenient outlet. “You’ve been calling it up, haven’t you!”

“Well …” he said, his long face reddening.

“You idiot!” I shouted. “I told you not to call it. You promised you wouldn’t!”

“No,” he said, his hands taking a grip on my shoulders. “I didn’t. You said I wouldn’t. And it just sort of happened. I didn’t even mean to call him the first time.”

“The first?” I exclaimed. “How many times have there been?”

Nick scratched the bristles on his cheek. “See, I was sketching pentagrams—for practice. I wasn’t going to do anything. He appeared, thinking I was trying to call him with some information to pay off my debt. Thank God I was in a circle.” Nick glanced at the soggy papers with their silver chalk lines. “Just like he showed up tonight.”

Together we turned to the demon, and it sent its shoulders to rise and fall in a shrug. It seemed more than willing to wait out our argument, more interested in Ivy’s favorites list than us at the moment.

“It’s an it, not a him,” I said. “And I’m not going to let you blame this on the demon.”

“How very kind of you, Rachel Mariana Morgan,” the demon said, and I scowled.

Nick was starting to look angry. On sudden impulse I pushed the hair from his left temple. My breath caught as I saw two lines bisecting his demon scar instead of one. “Nick!” I wailed. “You know what happens when you get too many of those?”

He took a bothered step back, and his brown hair fell to hide it.

“It can pull you into the ever-after!” I shouted, wanting to smack him a good one. I had only one line through my demon scar, and the worry still kept me up at night.

Nick said nothing, watching me with unrepentant eyes. Damn it all to hell, he wasn’t even trying to explain himself. “Talk to me!” I exclaimed.

“Rachel,” he said. “Nothing is going to happen. I’m being careful.”

“But you have two IOUs,” I protested. “If you don’t make good, you belong to it.”

He smiled confidently, and I cursed his belief that the printed word held all the answers and he would be safe if he followed the rules. “It’s okay,” he said as he took my shoulders again. “I’ve only entered into a trial contract.”